Iberdrola, unstoppable. The largest Spanish electric company, which today presented its 2024 annual results and once again surpassed all its records with a profit of 5.612 million euros, 17% higher than the already historic 2023.
Riding on record results, Iberdrola will increase the dividend, already reaching the target set for 2026. The company has proposed a shareholder reward of 0.635 euros per share, 15% higher than a year ago, raising the total investor remuneration to over 4.000 million euros. On January 31, it already paid out 0.231 euros per share, and now the electric company will propose to the General Shareholders' Meeting a complementary dividend of 0.404 per share.
The company's result was boosted by the huge capital gains from asset sales in Mexico, totaling over 1.000 million. The gross operating profit (ebitda), which measures the good performance of the businesses, stood at 16.848 million euros, another 17% increase.
The company's cash flow increased by 51%, reaching 16.769 million. Additionally, the group has a liquidity of 20.000 million euros, enough to cover its financial needs for 22 months without resorting to external debt.
The company has also improved its investment effort, raising its expenditure in 2024 to 17.000 million, 50% higher than in 2023. Here too, it has exceeded its annual targets, set at 12.000 million just a year ago. Neither the protectionist policies of Donald Trump, nor geopolitical instability have dampened the company's external appetite, with Spain losing weight as an investment destination.
Fueled by electrification forecasts, "driving demand in all countries," the energy company has increased its commitment to the United States and the United Kingdom, its "primary investment focuses," allocating 12.000 million in the period, 70% of the company's total effort.
The company's strategy to increasingly transform into a network group, with a growing share of the regulated electric infrastructure business, is paying off. It has directed its major investment effort to this segment, with 11.200 million euros invested, more than double that of 2023, mostly in new assets in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Brazil.
The markets have rewarded the group's strategy, and the company is experiencing its sweetest moment on the stock market: it is close to a 90.000 million market capitalization, 2.000 million more than a year ago.
The electric networks business is a safe haven against energy price fluctuations. Precisely, the energy company's goal is that, by 2026, 70% of its ebitda will have no direct exposure to price volatility, either due to regulated assets or long-term energy sales contracts (PPAs).
In this regard, Iberdrola has found its best ally in data centers, as they are energy-intensive with sufficient financial muscle to afford million-dollar infrastructures that ultimately become part of the energy company's regulated asset portfolio.
Iberdrola plans to review its strategic plan this fall. It will do so due to obsolescence rather than plot twists. Everything indicates that the company will maintain the main lines of its current plan: more networks and energy term contracts. However, it will raise its targets as it has already surpassed, ahead of schedule, its profit, investment, and dividend goals.